We should start a new stupd trend...

[ThatOneAccord]

Mismatched center caps for the rims?

[Wickit]

Have people already started sticker bombing stock wheels or steelies??

[crazymikey]

Kill stickers of how many dead hookers are in the trunk.

Like this, but on the trunk lid:

[Dr. Shuffles]

Two words: child seats.

Raise your suspension, on any import car.

Hell, I'd do it if I could. There are a lot of shitty roads where I live.

[crazymikey]

Muffler tips that look like trumpets, flutes or other musical instruments, since the coffee can thing got so played out.

[PakaloloHonda]

Concealed, side mounted .30 cal machine guns?

Now we're tawkin! .. Me first!

[stevediraddo]

someone in my town (for you locals, chateauguay) drives an acura that has been graffiti'd to death, all different colors, all friend-scribbles. such an eyesore.

[crazymikey]

Probably say BIG_RICH's car and thought "hey, I can do that too."

[dysfunk]

Before I got my suspension, I could totally double fist my wheel well gap.

How about we turn our hood squirters out so we can spray people?

My brother and i did that in the taurus wagon. We'd cruse the movie theater and squirt the teens standing by the curb waiting for their rides.

[short1]

Maybe bring back curb feelers or boomerang antennas. Instead of fixing rust just start covering it with stickers

[crazymikey]

Shave parts, but not fill the holes, or just cover them with tape/stickers.

[Law Grandeur]

spare tire will pop out through trunk because its hella flush to do so

[Tnwagn]

Stuff like that. Someone started it, and it got big. Real big.

We should intentionally start some idiotic trend and see if we can make it spread through the import tuning community.

Any ideas?

The thing is, the trends you mentioned weren't things that were picked out of a hat by a few individuals and put into play. Rather, these trends evolved over many years and grew from a few people that had legitimate reasons for the "trends" on their own personal vehicles. Unless you are a massive corporation, such as Apple, it is hard to develop a trend for the masses.

Sticker bombing

For a very, very long time people have been putting stickers on their cars to identify their interest in certain subjects. From the Carpool-driving PTA mom that loves America to the flat-billed wearing supporter of Monster Energy Drinks, bumper stickers are used by almost every level of the driving population. The act of putting stickers in places other than the typical trunk area came from the need cover imperfections. Let's say you have a dent in your front fender, but you have a Function and Form sticker from when you bought your coilovers. BOOM, problem solved. What started with duck tape on a redneck's truck has evolved to entire front ends covered in stickers.

Rusted hoods

This hearkens back to the Rat Rods that focus on a minimalistic approach to car building. Don't worry about a fancy paint job because that doesn't make your car go faster. For the majority of Rod builders, this was a personal statement. However, in the import community, it is an economic decision. Why get a hood painted when you can rust it up and have something that is unique while still saving money?

Stupid amounts of negative camber

There are two origins of this, which couldn't be further from one another. The first is the racing world. As we all know, larger wheels usually mean better traction and more speed. As such, racing teams would often use negative camber to allow them to fit larger wheels in the body specifications limited by regulating bodies. The second origin is from the VIP movement. VIP cars have always been about over the top modifications. Super dark tint, outrageous exhaust, and most importantly, big ass shiny wheels. The people who were trying to fit 20's on midsize family sedans realized that there wasn't any way to do so at factory suspension settings, so they had to get creative in the ways they fit wheels on.

The effects you see in the import community today are just people that went over the top with the effect. It's like girls that have realized they could get implants to have D's but instead decided to go to FFFFFF's.

Bike racks

People that are in the import community are also big into things like skateboarding and BMX. Skateboards you put in the trunk, bikes go on racks. Since the trunk rack looks like complete and utter shit (something we can all agree on), roof racks are common. As time went on the people buying the racks went from only the hardcore guys who biked 24/7 to the people who owned a bike and road a bit. After that it went to the guy who had a bike but didn't get out much and finally it moved on to the people that might want to buy a bike and want to fit into the crowd.

Dangling stuffed animals from a tow hook

"Drift Charms" are probably the only item from this list that could actually be traced back to a few guys who actually had the idea to turn this into a fad.

"For some reason, it has become some sort of trend for people to hang toys or other items of thier cars' rear tow hook, but the origination of this trend came from the Bosozoku (street gangsters with fixed up cars) in Japan. It was a Bosozoku trend to hang a small tin bucket from thier rear tow hook to show off how low thier cars were- they got the idea from seeing cement trucks in Japan, wich always had a bucket hanging off the rear of the truck. The cement trucks used the bucket as a "catch can" of sorts, so that excess cement from the truck would'nt spill onto the pavement. Inspired by this, the bosozoku trend setters attached small buckets to thier rear tow hooks to show how low thier bucket could hang- if your car was so low that the bucket could scrape on things as you were driving , they thought it was cool as hell."

The fads listed in the original post were poor examples of "trends" that could easily be set by a group of people. Examples of trends that can, and have, been set by small groups of very influential members of the import community are individual products like ASC Tower Bars, Enekie 92 wheels, and Status seats. All of those items were used by influential builders and because of their star status in the industry those products were gobbled up by consumers who wanted to emulate the best.

In other news, I can't believe I just wrote that entire thing. Yikes.

[1990accordex-r]

you know how Nascars and some race cars have painted on Headlights/Tailights?
Something like... one piece Front bumpers/ rear bumpers. Extra aerodynamikz yo.

[danf20bcb7]

lol i got a bunch of "DO NOT CRUSH" stickers i was gonna put over my wheel wells till i get it painted.